Successor
by GoddessOfOnions
Summary: A woman tells the story of her life and family history, and their impact on Hesperia.


Successor  
  
- Chapter One: Namesakes and Other Beginnings -  
  
» Part 1 «  
  
Immortality...The longing to prolong one's own life is natural, is it not? It is perhaps an inherent desire in all humans; our lives are brief and fragile, and death is a daunting notion for most. For some it is nothing but a grim, unwanted thought which lingers at the back of their minds, manifesting at night or when considering the reality of their own mortality. A few, as they age, will undertake useless endeavors to regain lost time or remain as they are, before eventually accepting their inevitable fate; for others, it becomes an obsession. Unfortunately, I have spent my entire life as one of those few who would devote themselves to working against what cannot and should not be altered. You could say I was born into it. Truthfully, this story is a tricky task to begin. An account of one's life is traditionally started at birth or with one's ascendants; to efficiently record my life, I will have to go back much further than this.  
  
It is a well-known fact that the old Fou Empire was a culture fixated with magic and power, as clear as the Carronade, which looms over the city of Astana. What less could you expect from a civilization brought into being by a god? What is not commonly known, is that this fixation with the ethereal predates the empire itself by many years. If there were none who studied the art of evocation before the summoning of Fou-lu, then by what means would he have made his way to our world? It is a fact that the first emperor was not brought here by chance, or accident; no, for even an imperfect calling as was the first emperor's, a sizeable amount of skill and research would have been required.  
  
Before the establishment of the Fou Empire, Hesperia was inhabited by many separate groups and clans, while the continent itself was governed by a monarchy. Though there is little physical evidence of these peoples left, the predominant society was an expansive nameless sect, which maintained a strong presence across the whole of Hesperia. This nameless sect was constantly at odds with a rival tribe called the Blaze, and both were under attack by the monarchy, which sought to remove those which threatened their power.  
  
A disillusioned and powerful cleric of the nameless clan insincerely pledged his loyalty to the last sovereign of the ancient monarchy, King Djoser. He captivated the interest of the greedy king with promises of otherworldly power and displays of his remarkable abilities. His knowledge of the two nuisance clans, which the king greatly despised, proved to be a critical factor in King Djoser's quest of eliminating them. The cleric, Quan, was successful in disposing of both clans, to a point. With the help of the king's armies, Quan was able to eradicate minor assemblages of Blaze warriors. He was even able to destroy the once great temple of En Jhou, exterminating all of the members of the nameless clan who dwelled within the shrine, and assassinate a number of the nameless clan's most influential leaders. With both groups posing less and less of a problem, Quan's need of the king's power was waning. The insidious man had other things on his mind, and being the faithful servant of a king was not included in his plans. Not a soul was aware of what the cleric was scheming, or that his intentions were not good-natured at all; no one, except Quan's own daughter. Together, with her companions: a Wyndian ambassador, a warrior of the Blaze tribe, an exiled Woren, and a member of a mysterious race which had disappeared during an archaic war, the cleric's daughter made a worthy adversary, despite being a young girl of fifteen years.  
  
The culmination of Quan's plot would be the summoning of one of the then nameless beings, which would come to be known as the endless. With a god under his control, one of the great deities both the Blaze tribe and the clan with no name revered so highly, there would be none to oppose him. The realization of this goal was slowly being put into place, but there was one problem Quan would have to resolve; while he possessed great power of his own, and the knowledge of how to go about summoning a god, he had not the power required to do so.  
  
Anyone, with proper instruction, could communicate with spirits and the Nameless Ones, but few in the world held the power to call upon the endless and bring them into this world; their numbers could be counted upon the hand. Furthermore, the teachings of evocation were strictly forbidden to the masses, lest the power of a god fall into the wrong hands, regardless of the rarity of even coming across such power. Those found to have the power were specially chosen to be trained in the art of evocation, and eventually became high priests or leaders among the Blaze and nameless sects. If one lacking the exceptional power were to acquire the assistance of a high priest of the nameless clan, an endless being could be temporarily brought into this world to attend to the plight of their human summoners. Once the minor quandaries of the mortals had been dealt with, the high priest would then send their benevolent master back from whence it came. Unfortunately for Quan, he had not the luxury of simply hiring a priest to do his bidding. As a young man, the cleric had been excommunicated from the nameless clan and exiled from the temple at Chedo, from where he had been born and raised, for an offense considered most impermissible: studying the art of evocation. The defiant acolyte, confident in his own ability and disbelieving that only few could call the nameless ones into this world, then attempted to implement all that he had learned and summon one of the nameless ones himself. Much to his dismay, he found that summoning was indeed a discriminating power, and moreover, one that he did not possess. His endeavors had been discovered, and for them he paid handsomely; he was cast out from his home, family, and ultimately lost his wife and child. However, Quan would not allow these set-backs to break him. He would obtain the power he craved and carry out his revenge by any means necessary.  
  
Quan had not become estranged from his wife and child with his banishment from Chedo; in fact, despite being a devout follower of her unnamed faith, Quan's wife, a woman named Mai, chose to leave the temple with him. It was not until she had borne him a daughter that Mai had strayed from his side. She left to place her child in the care of her elder brother Kado, whom had since succeeded the last high priest upon his death. It was not her intention to return. If she was to live her life in exile, Mai only wished that her daughter could live a virtuous life in the service of the divine beings which guided their world. However, after Mai departed, neither Quan nor her brother Kado ever saw her again. It was assumed she was either murdered by thieves or killed in one of the conflicts that were exceedingly common during those times, as she was returning to her home. Her daughter was never told anything of her father, and very little of her mother. She had been told nothing more than that her mother had abandoned her to chase after a godless man, bestowing her nothing but her name: Theda. It was not that Kado lied to the child for the purpose of deceiving her, or to erase her mother's memory. It grieved Kado to think of his sister, and troubled him deeply wondering about what fate had befallen her. It was simply too hard for him to speak of her, or of the detestable man he believed had inadvertently killed her ever again. The child she had left behind had been enough to calm his sorrows, he loved Theda as if she were his own daughter. She had his sister's eyes and determination, though much to his annoyance, she had inherited her father's defiant personality as well. Years later, Kado would come to find that his niece had inherited a rather unusual trait from him as well.  
  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
This chapter is a bit short, and more of a prologue. I'll have the next part up soon. If you liked the story, or have anything you want to ask or comment on, please review!  
  
____________________________________________________________________________ 


End file.
